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Friday, April 11, 2008

Favorite Sex Scenes

Ever have a favorite “hot!” book you kept by your bed, riddled with dog-eared pages marking the best parts? Some scenes, whatever the reason, seem to have the staying power to follow us through a lifetime.

My favorite sex scene of all time (no laughing, now!), is in Anne McCaffrey’s young adult book, Dragondrums. Part of her Harper Hall Trilogy, this book continues the saga of Menolly and Sebell, two harpers on the planet Pern, a land of soaring dragons and their enchanting miniatures, the fire lizards.

I read Dragondrums for the first time about a million years ago. My pre-teen heart had fallen for Sebell from the start, and through three books, I’d waited to see what would happen with him and Menolly. The big moment came as the two were stuck on a becalmed boat, with their miniature dragons mating above them.

I don’t think the entire sex scene could have been much longer than a paragraph, and in the way of young adult books, there was a lot more metaphor than detail. But it was the first sex scene I’d ever read, and I was hooked. Wow! Now this, this was the good stuff!

As my sister gleefully reminded me recently (in front of my husband and teen daughters), I carefully dog-eared the page of that fateful scene, and drew a cheerful little star next to the appropriate chapter number. My girls (who’ve read the book themselves) got a big kick out of that one. And my husband laughed even louder. Sisters can be a mixed blessing.

But my sister’s tongue-in-cheek comment that Dragondrums may be part of the reason I ended up writing erotic romance might not be far from the mark. Some scenes have staying power, and for me, that was one of them.

What about you? Any sex scenes, sweet or wild, that have followed you over the years? Any favorite bedtime books stashed away in your bedside table drawer? Maybe a juicy quote you want to share?

5 comments:

Okay, Jill, remind me, was Forever the one with the teen boy who liked to masturbate? I guess I remember Blume's Are You There God,It's Me, Margaret better. (If only for the hillarious "we must, we must, we must increase our bust" scene!). Ah yes, the joyous innocence of young adult fiction...